Awarding leadership in Australian sport

Elite sport isn’t just about talent and ability – it’s a hard-nosed business that needs top leaders to motivate high performance in individuals and teams.

Since 2012, Melbourne Business School has been working with the Australian Institute of Sport to develop leadership capabilities to bring back Australia’s winning edge, promote collaboration across sports and support the career progression of coaches from Performance Coach to Podium Coach to Performance Leader.

As part of the partnership, Melbourne Business School has sponsored the Award for Leadership at the annual AIS Sport Performance Awards.

This year’s winner, Kate McLoughlin, Chef de Mission of the Australian Paralympic team said she was humbled by the recognition.

“We don’t do this job for the accolades, we do it for the athletes and for the love of it, but it was nice to be recognised with this award, particularly amongst the group of leaders of Australian sport who were also nominated,” Mc Loughlin said.

“I’m incredibly proud of the 2016 Australian Paralympic Team and I’m incredibly proud to have been able to lead them.

“I’m proud of every single member of the team, whether they be athletes, coaches or staff working in performance services, media or operations. We faced a huge challenge and I’m so proud of the way everyone did their jobs.

“I certainly can’t take full credit for the way our team performed in Rio because we were fortunate to have an amazing group of people who worked together so well to provide such a great performance environment for our athletes.”

Guy Saunders, Associate Dean of Executive Education said the School is proud to be sponsoring the awards and making an impact at the AIS and more broadly to the Australian community.

“We recognise the contribution of sport to the health of society and we are very proud to be part of involved in supporting wellbeing and developing top leaders at the AIS and sporting talent to deliver their best performances,” said Mr Saunders.

“As Australia’s highest ranked business school, we believe recognition for leadership is important in sport and in business. This award, which we have sponsored for the last three years, is a credit to the strong partnership we have had with the Australian Institute of Sport since 2012 and the impact we have achieved together.”